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What is the best way to get a whole lot of data very, very quickly? Ask someone who already has it to hand it over to you. And that’s exactly what Google is doing. Previously before today, Google was grabbing data off True Local mainly for their Maps vertical. It appears now though that Google has switched to Sensis and signed a deal with them to share data between each other. (more…)

Sensis and Yellow provide millions of Australian businesses with a medium to promote their goods and services on the Internet. With the continual uptake of local based and personalised searches, as well as mobile device users seeking location specific data at an instant, it seems also natural for these two companies to join forces.

With this business advertising deal that has just been announced with Google and Sensis, it will allow the data from the Yellow listings to now be accessible on Google Maps.

What we have found recently with a lot of Google Maps Search results is that there appears to be quite a few “spammy” type listings, with businesses employing less than ethical means to flood those results. Seeing now that Yellow will be providing data, it should improve the trust-worthiness of the results. Businesses now that have duplicate listings, but with only one authentic location, might be able to be called out, as the Yellow data might show that another business already is claiming that location.

It would be great to see both Google and Sensis combat the abuse of the Maps service with this new data share agreement.

I am a massive fan of Google Analytics, I won’t lie. In fact, I probably spend too much time each day over analysing Analytics data. Today the industry is buzzing based on Google’s Analytics Update Post

Adsense Integration is great for web publishers in monitoring how well the site is doing financially. However, for those of us that make a point of looking at how our website is performing overall, the new advanced Segmentation is the real winner. Now we can group keywords and visits together with performance, breaking it down to levels that would normally require us to perform custom data analysis in house. Identifying exactly what is performing to the most minute detail is something that I have longed for in Analytics for a long time.

The pretty Motion charts will definitely look great on our client reporting we provide, as well as helping us better co-relate different metrics together.

The best news of all however? We are slowly, slowly getting the API that we have been desperately seeking for so long. Mixing our analytics data with our other information sources we benchmark with would provide us with the highest level of reporting for our clients and their websites.

Now all I need is for Analytics to break down performance by days and time and I will be over the moon.

The biggest problem with the Internet is the amount of content and services that are available to subscribe to, visit regularly, and the most time consuming of all - update with current information ourselves (hello twitter and facebook).

So the question is how do you manage all this information effectively? The short answer is you can’t. The long answer is: the recently updated iGoogle is the closest you will ever come.

We at E-Web have been using iGoogle for quite a while, and to be honest never had too much to complain about, besides the exponential growth of all our feeds. And for us, we feel the Google Reader integration is the best part of the new feature set, along with putting the navigation on the left hand side with one click access to gadgets.

Although at the moment it appears the rollout has only happened for the USA users of iGoogle, we have been part of the Beta testing program, and running virtually the same feature set for the last few months, and definitely streamlines a few key areas that we regularly use. Lets just hope the Australian iGoogle rollout isn’t to far away.

It has to be said that Google hasn’t exactly had an easy time leading up to the release of its mobile phone operating system (or platform, or whatever buzz word you want to use). With delays and launches continually been pushed back, along with some disappointment from mobile phone developers with the lack of SDK updates, Google have really had to work to keep interest alive.

With Apple making continual ground with the iPhone, Google will now have to play catch up. Good news is though is that there is now a date: September 23rd, 2008 and it appears the first handset to have the operating system installed will be manufactured by HTC.

With it expected to have full integration with all of Google’s software suite, it will definitely win many a Google user over without much effort. What else is an interesting side-point is that Google did not appear to give iPhones support to its Street View technology in another recent rollout. Interesting move Google.

Yahoo is pulling out all the stops in improving their position in the marketplace. After many years as the key player in search, only to be usurped by Google in the last few years, their current base of 500 million users worldwide is slowly being eaten up by other new comers such as MySpace and Facebook.

Their first call to action will be a brand new design of their homepage, which has not been re-done since 2006. Following in the idea of iGoogle, they will be allowing widgets to be embedded onto the page to further encourage its users to make it their one stop shop on the Internet.

They also plan to increase their bottom line by opening their site to external service provides, most notably Google’s Advertising network, which has generated some concern from anti-trust lawyers. Yahoo also plans at looking opening up a  music section to compete with Amazon and iTunes.

The key point here is that Yahoo is by no means given up any hope, and if they play their cards right, can prove to be a force again as a portal site as well as a search engine.

It comes as no suprise that since Yahoo has made a few announcements about its plans on mixing TV and Internet, Google also it seems has been working hard on a similar project. Google wants to take its massive search marketing model and transport it to the television, replacing mouse clicks with remote control clicks. To be able to tell what time and program a television viewer switches over from an ad is possible with the latest in digital television technology.

Whilst this does sound good in theory, once again its not just a matter of implementing the network and away Google goes. AdWeek reports:

“I don’t think Google is going to own TV advertising,” said Roger Barnette, president of SearchIgnite, an advertising bid management system. “They can in search because everyone goes to Google.com to do a search. They’re not going to own TV networks. They’re going to be a technology middleman.”

“It seems that the television establishment, both the buyers and sellers, are likely to want to buy it person to person,” said David Graves, an analyst with Forrester Research. “Changing the way TV is bought and sold is a not-insignificant task.”

If Google plans on pushing its weight around on the television advertising world, a tried and tested medium for decades, they might not get the welcome that they are desiring or expecting.

Intel Corp and Yahoo are working extremely hard on merging probably the two biggest forms of media in the 21st century - Television and the Internet. These companies are not the first to try this, nor will be the last, but they have the time, money and resources to be able to have the best attempt at this so far.

They are considering using the current ideas of ‘Widget’ technology that has been incorporated on many desktops across all platforms over the last few years. By enabling a sidebar scrolling along the bottom of the television screen, it could be possible you are watching your favourite show, but at the same time check your email on a sidebar, or download the latest stock quotes.

It’s not as easy as it sounds, the Wall Street Journal states:

But they face stiff competition, and the need to rally Internet, software and consumer-electronics companies behind their plan. Intel said it has received support from some big players, including cable giant Comcast Corp., Walt Disney Co.’s ABC unit and hardware makers Sony Corp., Toshiba Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. and Motorola Inc.

If Yahoo and Intel can make this technology accessible and affordable to consumers and get the backing it needs from the electronic industry - I believe the uptake of this technology will prove to be a very successful merging of Television and the Internet.

MySpace is reported to be days away from signing a digital music venture with major record companies to offer digital downloads of music.

Sony BMG and Warner Music are the first batch of labels that have entered into the talks with the failing MySpace network.
“Everybody’s operating with a sense of urgency to try to close it out,” said one industry insider.

It will be interesting to see how this offering could potentially revive the MySpace moment with music fans and bands online, though one would assume that Facebook are also very close to offering similar deals.

Google has announced plans to utilise ‘White Space’ (the soon to be defunct airwaves TV ran on before Digital) and use it to push Wi-Fi access at incredible speeds all over the country.

People feared it may interrupt with other TV stations and wireless devices, but turns out it wont even be noticeable.

This new move is labeled the ‘Wi-Fi 2.0′ or ‘Wi-Fi on steroids’ - as the white space frequencies hold enough power and depth to push high speed internet to many people very quickly.

Personally I think this is one of Google’s greatest accomplishments to date. The airwaves will soon be rendered useless and will be 100% free for commercial distribution of internet access.

Will this be an entry point for Google to become an ISP (Internet Service Provider)? Would that be ethical? Google almost dominating the internet, its access and its content.